In August, historic Islay Scotch producer Bowmore announced two 20-year-old single malts: Bowmore Captivo Sherry Cask Pursuit, a global travel retail exclusive, and Bowmore Captivo Oak Voyage, available in the U.S. To accompany these new limited-edition releases, the whiskymaker commissioned New York City-based architecture and design practice Snarkitecture to lend its touch to the bottle and packaging. The result, a radiant biomorphic shape, lightly alludes to the use of wood in whisky aging, but also represents a metaphoric portal into sensory discovery.
Bowmore reached out to Snarkitecture regarding the project. “It was an easy yes,” co-founder Alex Mustonen tells Surface. “Designers are interested in a new challenge, a new discipline, a new program. Whisky and spirits in general are not something we’ve worked in. The studio had been headed in this direction of commercial interiors around hospitality, retail, and office. This was an opportunity to be more experimental in the world of object design.”
Mustonen was drawn to the fact that Bowmore is Islay’s oldest licensed distillery. “I love any chance we get to work with a brand or an organization that has such a deep history,” he says. He traveled to Islay to learn about the whiskymaker at its source. “I went to the distillery. You can feel it. You can hear it. You can taste that this product has been rooted here for 250 years. It has an honest connection to the place that it comes from.”
“My visit there was transformative,” he continues. “Stepping from the plane onto this tiny island off the coast of Scotland felt like stepping into another time. Without being overly dramatic, it was quite moving.” Mustonen toured the distillery on an unexpectedly bright and sunny day. When he crossed into the darkness of Bowmore No. 1 Vaults, the historic stone-walled maturation warehouse beside the ocean, his mind conjured anticipation and mystery. These feelings directly inspired his design.
This idea of the portal—or threshold, which Mustonen sometimes calls the visual—acts as an invitation to explore, much like how the designer felt in the Scottish distillery and also during a tasting of Captivo Oak Voyage as he learned about its nuances. The organic concentric imagery is coupled with Snarkitecture’s ineffable signature font, designed by Brooklyn-based Neil Donnelly Studio, a playful tumble of letters.
Mustonen is quick to admit that he’s not a single malt Scotch whisky expert. As such, insight from Dr. Calum Fraser, master blender, Scotch and Irish at Suntory Global Spirits, became fundamental. “After two decades in American oak ex-bourbon barrels, we’ve introduced another dimension through a full finish in American oak Oloroso sherry seasoned butts, an oak species that, to my knowledge, we haven’t seasoned with a sherry before ahead of aging,” Fraser shares with Surface. “You have that long interaction between Bowmore and American oak, complemented by the richness and complexity introduced by Oloroso seasoning. The casks, the wood, and the maturation journey all shape the whisky, and this delivers a distinctly different drinking experience.”
